Case Study: Aussie Farmers Direct

Case Study Outline

Aussie Farmers Direct is a free home-delivery service providing 100% Australian-owned fresh products. Aussie Farmers Direct customers were recently offered the ability to access their orders online. The SMART Group Digital and Design department took creative control over the online customer ordering system (orders.aussiefarmers.com.au). By combining extensive usability knowledge and research with input from customer focus groups, the team successfully and seamlessly melded form with functionality.

Problem

After almost 5 years in business, Aussie Farmers Direct was growing rapidly, having won the ‘Fastest Growing Business’ in Australia award from BRW Magazine. Calls. Requests from their large customer base were inundating their contact / call centre, and there was only a basic method of self service via the internet. The decision was made to provide a full self service portal through www.aussiefarmers.com.au and include the ability for new customer sign ups, order changes, standing order changes, checking account balances and a variety of other actions.

Solution

The SMART Group spent 4 weeks working with Aussie Farmers Direct to process map the flow of all associated tasks. Once this was complete, the Digital and Design department set about creating a custom made portal that included an online shopping cart with images of produce, and provided functionality for payment through a gateway. Over a period of 6 months, the Project Management team worked with Aussie Farmers Direct to slowly implement changes phase by phase – providing customer notifications that new functionality existed and stemming the flow of calls to the call / contact centre.

In order to assist customers with using the new online ordering system, a tutorial video was produced to guide customers through the online order system. Both the online ordering system and video tutorial have received accolades from Aussie Farmers Direct and their customers.

Success

• Full online ordering system implemented, with shopping cart, checkout and payment.

• Specials notifications sent digitally to customers, who were advised to visit the website.

• Call volume for basis order change tasks minimised at the contact / call centre level.

• Aussie Farmers Direct customers able to view pricing and nutritional information.

• Ongoing relationship with Aussie Farmers Direct subsequently saw The SMART Group develop a full CRM system that linked with the website.